


5 Christmases + 1 Christmas Eve

by danrdarrenc



Category: Days of Our Lives
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:55:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21975442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danrdarrenc/pseuds/danrdarrenc
Summary: 5 Christmases and 1 Christmas Eve in the lives of Will and Sonny and their family.
Relationships: Will Horton/Sonny Kiriakis
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	5 Christmases + 1 Christmas Eve

**2019**

Will blinked awake to the early morning sun streaming through their window. Sonny’s arm was draped over his waist, his body a warm weight against Will’s back. Will turned carefully so as not to wake Sonny and smiled softly at his sleeping husband.

“Morning,” Sonny mumbled, half-asleep.

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” Will whispered.

Sonny smiled slowly and opened his eyes to look at Will. “I’m certain a little monster is going to wake us any second.”

Will huffed out a laugh and brushed his lips against Sonny’s before snuggling closer so they were nose-to-nose.

Sure enough, a minute later, the door opened and the bed bounced with the weight of a seven year-old.

“Daddies, wake up! It’s Christmas!” 

Will and Sonny laughed together and let Ari drag them out of bed and downstairs to see what Santa brought her.

* * *

**2021**

Sonny woke to the first rays of sunlight peeking through the slats in their bedroom shades. Will was sleeping peacefully next to him, their faces a breath away. Their legs were twined under the sheets and the hands in between them were brushing. Sonny lifted his other hand to trace lightly over Will’s face. 

This past year had been nothing short of a roller-coaster of emotions: the divorce; finding out Maggie had been the one responsible for Adrienne’s death and that Victor had framed Will for it; Will being released from prison; Will insisting that Sonny be happy with Evan (”What happened will never go away, Sonny! It doesn’t matter that I didn’t do it!”); Sonny insisting that Will not being responsible _did_ make a difference (”Of course it matters, Will! All the reasons you gave me for not being together don’t exist anymore!”); them getting back together on their anniversary (”Husbands for life, remember?” Sonny asked before kissing Will senseless); their third - and final! (or so Sonny hoped) - wedding in August on the anniversary of Will getting his memories back. 

And now they were here, in their own apartment, settled again, and happy.

“I can hear you thinking,” Will said, popping open an eye to look at Sonny.

“Sorry,” Sonny said with a cheeky grin. “I didn’t mean to wake you. You looked so peaceful.”

“What were you thinking about?” 

“Everything that happened this year.”

Will blinked fully awake and his hand found Sonny’s under the sheets. “I love you.”

“I love you too.”

They kissed lazily for a long time.

“It’s so quiet,” Will whispered.

“That’s what happens when there’s no almost nine-year old monster in the house on Christmas.”

Will grinned. They had dropped Ari (and all the presents for her) off with Gabi and Stefan after the Horton tree trimming the night before. She had spent Christmas with them for the past few years (just Sonny, last year); she had asked to be with her mom this year and they readily obliged. 

“What do you want to do today?” Sonny asked. 

“Can we stay in? Or do we have go to your family?”

“Staying in sounds like the best Christmas ever,” Sonny answered, kissing Will again.

After sleeping another couple of hours, Sonny made them pancakes and they exchanged their gifts for each other (a new watch [Will’s was lost in the accident] and journal for Will, and new gloves [Sonny’s were hopelessly worn out] and new pages for their photo album for Sonny). 

Together they opened their families’ presents: from Eric and Nicole they received a framed photo of a quiet moment between them from their wedding that they hadn’t known he’d captured; Sami, Lucas, and EJ had jointly sent them Italian chocolates and two expensive bottles of wine; Justin had bought them season tickets to the Cubs home games; John and Marlena had bought them the stereo system they were missing; Kate gifted them a weekend at the Green Mountain Lodge; and Arianna had drawn them a picture of the three of them and a puppy (her way of telling them she wanted a dog) and bought each of them matching pens with her allowance money.

When they finished with all their presents, they settled on the couch under a fuzzy, warm blanket, with cups of hot chocolate in their hands, and spent the rest of the day watching silly Christmas movies and snacking on the Italian chocolate and popcorn.

* * *

**2023**

Will, Sonny, and Ari strolled through the Christmas market in Switzerland, Ari carefully cradling a cup of hot chocolate as she perused the stalls. They’d already purchased three bags full of jewelry, tchotchkies, and various gifts for Gabi, her grandparents, and great-grandparents.

This Christmas they had decided to take Ari to visit Sami, Lucas, EJ, the twins, and Sydney, and follow through on visiting the European markets they had talked about so long ago. They were also going to stop by Carrie and Austin (who had reunited) and Noah while they were in Switzerland. It was to be their last trip out of Salem for a while, with the babies due to be born in February.

“Daddy! Can I go on the carousel?!” Ari asked, looking up at Will. At almost eleven, she was in ways both very much a teenager and still a kid.

“Sure, Little Lady,” Will said. He still used the old endearment whenever possible, certain she wouldn’t tolerate it much longer.

She grinned, handed Sonny her empty cup, and ran to the carousel.

Sonny laughed, linked his fingers with Will’s, and together they followed Ari to the carousel to pay for her ride. 

* * *

**2024**

Their first Christmas with the twins was chaotic. It started when Ari grumbled to get out of bed early, even though she was excited to open presents (although she would never let on that she was, she was too old now). Then it took them an extra hour to get out of the house with two ten-month olds and a pre-teen than it normally would have and they had four different places to hit before they could collapse back home.

Their first stop was the Kiriakis mansion to visit Justin, Maggie, Victor, and Sonny’s brothers who had surprised them all for coming to Salem for Christmas this year. They had planned on only staying an hour but Maggie had insisted they stay for tea.

So an hour behind schedule, they headed to the Brady Pub to visit Roman, Kayla and Steve, Stephanie, who had also come to Salem for the holidays, Hope, and Shawn, Belle, and Claire, who had been released from Bayview the previous year. At the Pub, they ate lunch, and the twins fell asleep in their carriage.

With the twins still asleep, and bellies full, they made a pit stop at Kate’s apartment, where they made up some time, managing to stay only a half an hour with the excuse that they had dinner plans and still needed to see John and Marlena. It wasn’t a complete lie as their dinner plans were with John and Marlena, but Kate didn’t need to know that.

The babies woke up crying somewhere between Kate’s apartment and John and Marlena’s townhouse, so they lost time again as they had to stop to soothe them. Eventually, with one baby in Ari’s arms and one in Sonny’s, and Will pushing the now empty carriage, they rang the doorbell to the townhouse.

Brady greeted them with his four-year old daughter on his hip. 

As they were pulling off their coats and scarves, Paul appeared from the kitchen with his new husband, followed by Claire, Belle, and Shawn, who had beaten them to the townhouse from the Pub. John and Marlena appeared shortly after, hugging Will and Sonny and Ari and cooing at the babies.

An hour later, they sat down to dinner, Ari chattering away about the presents she received and loudly and pointedly about the ones she hadn’t. 

* * *

**2030**

The Christmas before Ari’s nineteenth birthday she didn’t spend in Salem. Johnny, Allie, and Sydney had decided to spend the two weeks covering Christmas and New Year’s in Aruba and Ari had cajoled Will, Sonny, and Gabi into letting her go with them. Allie had promised Will that they wouldn’t let Ari drink (”Will, Dad is an alcoholic and I’ve had more than my share of days clinging to a toilet bowl.”), but he knew in his bones that Ari would have a drink at some point during the trip. 

“I have to give Ari credit though,” Sonny said after getting off the phone with her on Christmas morning. “In all the times we’ve spoken to her, she’s never sounded even tipsy.”

“Should that worry us?” Will asked on a laugh. 

“No. I don’t think so. Ari’s a good girl. She’s not a partier,” Sonny said seriously. “I think I’m more concerned about her switching a paternity test or something.”

Will howled with laughter and the twins appeared from their bedroom to see what the commotion was.

* * *

**\+ 1**

**2040**

After Julie passed away earlier in the year, Doug already passed two years before, Jennifer had offered the Horton house to Will and Sonny. With Chad, Abby, Thomas, and Charlotte permanently living in Paris, and JJ in London, Jack and Jennifer had decided to relocate to Paris to be closer to their family. Because the apartment was feeling crowded with two teenage boys, and because Arianna was now married with a baby on the way, Will and Sonny thanked Jennifer profusely and accepted the deed to the Horton house.

And so it was their first year hosting the annual Horton tree trimming. 

“Adam! Make sure the boxes of ornaments are down from the attic!” Will called from the kitchen where he was checking on Sonny’s cookies. 

Adam huffed and begrudgingly put down his book to trudge up the stairs to the attic.

“Chris, can you help me with the tree?” Sonny asked, struggling. Chris jumped off the couch to help position the tree in front of the window.

“How does it look?” Sonny asked Will who appeared from the kitchen. 

“Looks great,” Will said with a smile.

Chris and Sonny high-fived as Adam came back downstairs, the two boxes of ornaments in his arms.

“Thank you,” Will said, as the doorbell rang. 

“I’ll get it!” Chris announced. A minute later he came back into the room with Ari and her husband, Jake.

“Dads!”

“Ari!” “Sweetpea!” Will and Sonny exclaimed at the same time. 

“Merry Christmas, Dads,” Ari said, enveloping them both in a hug. “Merry Christmas, squirt,” she said to Adam, ruffling his hair as she passed behind the couch where he was sitting, reading again.

“Ugh!”

Ari giggled as he fixed his hair. 

“Who else is coming?” Ari asked Sonny as the doorbell announced another group of Hortons.

“Where are my favorite grandchildren?” Lucas called from the foyer. He, Sami, EJ, Johnny, Allie, and Sydney had all come in for Christmas. They were seeing Sami, EJ, Johnny, Sydney and their respective wives (Sydney had come out to the family as bisexual three years ago) at the Brady Pub tomorrow for Christmas. 

“Hi, Grandpa,” Ari said softly, who was the first to reach Lucas. “Merry Christmas, Aunt Allie.” 

“Merry Christmas,” Adam mumbled into Lucas’ hug. Allie laughed under her breath as she received the quickest hug in existence from Adam.

“Merry Christmas, Grandpa, Aunt Allie,” Chris said cheerily.

Jennifer, Jack, Abby, Chad, and the kids were the next to arrive, followed closely by Hope and Ciara. Eli and Lani came next, toting their baby daughter, Violet, who was named for Eli’s mother who had passed away last year. Maggie and Sarah were the last to arrive just as Will was passing around Sonny’s cookies fresh out of the oven, and eggnog. 

“Before we hang the ornaments, I just want to thank everyone for coming,” Will said. “I know this year has been rough for some of us, but it’s also brought us some joy, I hope. I, um, I know living here, and hosting this party has a long tradition and is a lot to live up to. But I hope that we can do justice to Gran and to Doug and Julie, and Aunt Jennifer, of course. So Merry Christmas and let’s decorate this tree!”

They all cheered and clinked glasses, and Will started the tree trimming by hanging Tom and Alice’s ornaments right at the top of the tree under the star.


End file.
